Logically thinking, it wasn’t such an impossible occurrence.

After all, the reason Dorothea’s party came to this Lumière territory in the first place was to follow the compass, detecting and seeking the response of the sacred treasure.

It wasn’t like they were aimlessly wandering the vast continent; they moved following the tails of animals that guided them in a straight line to the target, so it was natural that the probability of encountering a sacred treasure increased dramatically.

However—

Why now of all times? Why does she happen to have a sacred treasure?

The owner of the sacred treasure happened to be right in front of her, and even pleading for help, saying she would pay any price.

The timing was too good, and the development flowed too conveniently, making Dorothea feel tremendously uneasy.

One might say she should just enjoy the luck that came her way, but she had experienced too many spectacular events while collecting sacred treasures to enjoy this at her leisure.

She had destroyed a bandit group while scamming an auction, raided an ancient dungeon where a vampire was sealed, fought fiercely in a huge tournament, conducted a raid against the best alchemist of this era, and made deals while cooperating in a huge conspiracy that shook the entire empire.

After collecting eight sacred treasures one by one like that, to have an opportunity to obtain one so easily? Suspicion grew rapidly.

However, it would also be ridiculous to ignore the target that appeared before her eyes and go looking for something else just because it felt fishy.

“…What exactly do you want?”

At Dorothea’s question with a sour expression, the cinder-covered girl’s face lit up.

“A-are you going to grant my wish!?”

“Not everything. I’ll only pay as much as this one ring is worth.”

Seeing Dorothea drawing a firm line, the girl fell into contemplation.

In her heart, she wanted to ask for punishment for her stepmother, sisters, and incompetent father, but while this might feel satisfying in the short term, there was nothing beyond that.

To be frank, even if they received a harsh lesson, it wouldn’t improve the girl’s life.

Unlike genuine avengers who would throw away their own lives if they could just have revenge, the girl wanted to properly secure her own happiness, too.

That was why she had stubbornly saved even small amounts of money every day while complaining and lamenting.

After moving her lips a few times, the girl finally spoke with a determined face, “The ball… I want to participate in the ball that decides the prince’s bride, in perfect form!”

“Prince? Ah, come to think of it, it was said to have been a kingdom in the past.”

But now it’s just a count’s territory, is it right for the people of the territory to call the count’s heir a prince?

Dorothea momentarily felt doubtful, but then shrugged her shoulders, thinking, “Well, whatever.”

“Why are you trying to become the prince’s bride? Isn’t a noble’s marriage something that considers family background and politics and such? Won’t you just be wasting your time if you go?”

To Dorothea’s words, the girl answered clearly, Someone who cares about such things wouldn’t hold a ball to choose a bride in the first place. The prince must be someone who prioritizes appearance above all. I need to be beautiful, gorgeous, unique, and elegant! I don’t care about the inside, as long as I can dazzle him with my outward appearance!

“I, I see…”

Dorothea inwardly muttered that this girl seemed a bit strange after all.

“Just to confirm, your wish is ‘to participate in the ball in the most beautiful and special appearance possible, and to capture the prince’s heart’, right?”

“Yes, is it not possible?”

“I can provide some support to a possible extent. But in the end, whether things work out or not depends on you, and that prince. If the prince says he doesn’t like you, I can’t take responsibility for that.”

“That’s fine.”

“And even if you manage to capture the heart of the count’s son, or prince, as you say, if he’s the type to only consider appearance and not consider anything else before rushing into marriage, as you said, I don’t think your married life afterwards will be very happy?”

“Isn’t it a much better future compared to being worked like a servant and dying as an old maid, or escaping from home only to be kidnapped by some bandit group?”

“…”

Dorothea stared into the girl’s eyes.

The girl wasn’t optimistically thinking everything would work out without any basis.

As proof, undeniable anxiety and impatience were contained in the girl’s eyes.

But to the same degree, or rather even more so, greedy ambition was also present.

If she had to take a gamble anyway, it was as if she wasn’t satisfied with just reaching her waist height, but wanted to reach as high as possible by climbing on a chair and stretching her legs to their limit.

“Dorothea Aschengard. That’s the name of the witch you’ve contracted with.”

“I’m Zoluschka, daughter of Vasilisa. Though that’s the name my mother used to call me in her hometown style, here I’m more often called Ella or Cinderella.”

Thus, the contract was established.

***

“—For that reason, we’ll be staying in this city for a few days until that ball or whatever happens. Anyone have any complaints?”

At Dorothea’s words, the lion, the scarecrow, and the Tin Knight stared blankly at Dorothea.

Dorothea twitched one eyebrow, “Speak up, speak I tell you.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ answers that everyone is silent because they have no complaints!]

At the Tin Knight’s words, Adelaide nodded.

“Yes, I think it’s a good choice, too. Unlike before, we can obtain a sacred treasure through peaceful means, right?”

“Also, since the territory itself is quite affluent and has many things to see, if we think of it as a break, it’s beneficial for us, too.”

“Hmm.”

Overall, the answers were affirming Dorothea’s choice, but Dorothea herself seemed quite uncomfortable.

The Tin Knight could somehow guess her feelings.

After all, Dorothea’s actions were extremely inefficient and wasteful.

Granting the girl’s wish in exchange for receiving the kingdom’s sacred treasure?

At first glance, it might seem like a fair contract, but thinking coldly, there was a much simpler and easier way.

They could just take the ring from the girl, and that would be the end of it.

The opponent was an ordinary girl who couldn’t use swordsmanship or magic. Even Rapunzel, now called Trot and working at the Tower of Protection, was skilled enough to infuse mana into her two fists, but compared to her, this girl was infinitely weak in terms of force.

She didn’t have any troublesome backing, and if Dorothea and her party tried to take the ring, the girl had no way to resist.

However, despite knowing this, Dorothea chose to make a fair contract with the girl and obtain the ring through that method.

And she seemed to feel something like self-loathing inwardly about this fact.

While she hadn’t spared the means of violent struggle to obtain sacred treasures so far, she was acting clean and fair when dealing with just one girl, wasn’t that hypocritical?

But the Tin Knight didn’t think such behavior was wrong.

After all, the Dorothea he knew was that kind of person.

Someone who would loosely and casually set free a familiar that should originally be suppressed with a thorough and clear contract down to the smallest details.

She might not be very witch-like, but she was extremely human-like.

So how could he not be pleased?

[The ‘Tin Knight’ claims this is an interesting event in its own way!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ shows enthusiasm, saying he’ll create a perfect bride since we’re doing this anyway!]

[The ‘Tin Knight’ suggests teaching self-defense techniques to knock down assassins barehanded first, as befitting of a modern young lady!]

“What kind of young lady is that, you idiot?”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ counters, saying isn’t there one right next to her!]

“In my view, she’s already beyond help as a young lady.”

“Eh, me!?”

As the lion made a sad face at the unexpected stray, the scarecrow said, “But shouldn’t we find a place to sleep tonight first? It seems the sun will set soon.”

“Ah.”

Realizing they were originally in the middle of looking for lodging, the witch made a dumbfounded sound.

The Tin Knight suggested they could just ask to stay at the girl’s house for a while, but the witch firmly rejected it, not wanting to show that sight.

In the end, the party was only able to sleep after leaving the city center where every decent parking space was packed with carriages, and retreating to the outer areas.

***

And so, the next day.

“Hey! How did you do the laundry to make the clothes end up like this!? I was told it was a new product trending even in the royal capital! The red dress has faded to pink!!”

“That one, the dye seemed to bleed out just from touching water…. Wasn’t it a defective product to begin with?”

“Are you saying I was stupidly scammed!?”

“…No, I’ll be careful.”

“Hmph!”

“Cinderella! Embroider this handkerchief with beautiful blue roses by today.”

“Then, you need to give me money to buy blue thread.”

“Is this enough?”

“It’s not enough.”

“How do you know without even going to the store? Are you just trying to extort money?”

“…If you insist, I could dye the thread myself and prepare it. But then it would take a few days to make.”

“Hmph. Forget it. To think you’d try to make money with such tricks. How did you become so greedy and selfish?”

“Cinderella, the air in the house has been stuffy lately. Are you cleaning properly?”

“Yes, I’m doing my best every day.”

“What’s the use of just doing your best? You should do it well. You’re living off the money my husband earns and my dowry. Do it properly with the mindset of repaying that. Isn’t that right, dear?”

“Ahem. Well, let’s get going. We’ll be late at this rate.”

After all the family members had left.

Cinderella gritted her teeth, then carefully moved to the backyard.

A mouse with a body made of bones, sitting on the wall, urged the girl to follow as if saying “come along”.

And so, the girl met Dorothea again.

The witch, whom she met on the outskirts of the city, was leaning against a very large and splendid carriage, and the sight was so mysterious that the girl inadvertently let out an exclamation of admiration.

Whether unaware or aware of the girl’s appreciation, the witch led the girl into the carriage, saying to come in for now.

“Wow.”

Although it wasn’t glittering with gold and silver treasures, Cinderella’s eyes shone at the sight of the carriage interior, which gave off an obviously luxurious feeling at a glance.

The witch, in a crooked posture somewhere between dignity and allure with her arms folded and legs crossed, asked Cinderella, “You’ll need to prepare for the ball in the few days left, do you have any wishes? We’ll prepare on our side too, but it’s easier to know the points if there are wishes from the person involved, so I’m asking.”

To the witch’s question, Cinderella answered, “A carriage. I think it would be nice to have a very wonderful and splendid carriage, like this one.”

“Okay, I’ll prepare one. Anything else?”

“We’ll need horses to pull the carriage and a coachman too, right?”

“That naturally comes with it. What’s next?”

“Um… Oh, a pretty dress! Oh, and I need shoes too! I’d like something pretty and unique that people can tell is different at a glance.”

“Hmm. Well, I get the gist of it. We’ll adjust other details additionally. Let’s prepare those first for now.”

At the witch’s words, Cinderella gulped.

It was a carriage, horses, coachman, dress, and shoes prepared directly by none other than the witch herself.

She couldn’t stop anticipating what kind of mysterious magic would be shown, already excited.

Will she turn a pumpkin into a carriage? Make mice transform into horses? Maybe she’ll wave her wand at tattered clothes and they’ll change into a gorgeous dress!

And then, the witch said, “It might be a bit tight on time to custom order horses and a carriage, so we’ll buy the best ones available in this city. Go get your measurements taken for the dress today. I’ll entrust it to a specialty shop. It seems they’re a bit backed up on reservations, but if we pour in enough money, they’ll take care of it.”

“…Um, what about making them with magic or something like that?”

“Vast amounts of money are no different from magic.”

***

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